Information processing apparatus and information processing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11117586-B2
Application number	US-201816170894-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2018
Priority date	Nov 7, 2017
Publication date	Sep 14, 2021
Grant date	Sep 14, 2021

Abstract

An information processing apparatus includes a processor. The processor is configured to estimate whether a fellow passenger is included in occupants of a vehicle, when the fellow passenger is included in the occupants, acquire information relating to a driver of the vehicle and information relating to the fellow passenger, estimate a relationship between the driver and the fellow passenger based on the acquired information, and select a control relating to traveling of the vehicle according to the relationship.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An in-vehicle information processing apparatus mounted in a vehicle including a processor for executing programs stored in memory, the processor configured to:
estimate whether a fellow passenger is included in occupants of the vehicle,
when the fellow passenger is included in the occupants, acquire information relating to a driver of the vehicle and information relating to the fellow passenger and estimate a relationship between the driver and the fellow passenger based on the acquired information, and
select a control relating to traveling of the vehicle according to the relationship,
wherein the processor is configured to select a comfort priority mode giving priority to comfort when a degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is low,
wherein the processor is configured to select a fuel efficiency priority mode giving priority to fuel efficiency when a degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is high, and
wherein the processor is configured to further receive positional information of the vehicle from a global positioning system of the in-vehicle device,
wherein the relationship is one of a family, a friend, a dating partner, and a co-worker,
wherein the degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is low when the fellow passenger is an acquaintance or short term friend, short term dating partner, or a superior co-worker, and
wherein the degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is high when the fellow passenger is a best friend, long term dating partner, or a subordinate co-worker.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is configured to further-receive, from a plurality of portable terminals, positional information of the portable terminals; and
the processor is configured to estimate the occupants based on the positional information of the vehicle and the positional information of the portable terminals.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to receive cargo delivery information with the vehicle from the portable terminals of the occupants and update cargo information of the vehicle, and the processor is configured to select a control of the vehicle based on a situation of an undelivered cargo.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the processor is configured to, as the control of the vehicle,
i) select a comfort priority mode in which comfort of the occupants are given priority when a frozen commodity is included in the undelivered cargo or when a total weight of the undelivered cargo is within a predetermined range,
ii) select a fuel efficiency priority mode in which fuel efficiency is given priority when the frozen commodity is not included in the undelivered cargo, the total weight is outside the predetermined range, and the total weight is equal to or less than a first predetermined value, and
iii) select a 50-50 mode that is a control intermediate between the fuel efficiency priority mode and the comfort priority mode when the frozen commodity is not included in the undelivered cargo, the total weight is outside the predetermined range, and the total weight is greater than the first predetermined value.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage unit configured to store information indicating a driving characteristic acquired from the vehicle and information indicating a driving characteristic for each of the occupants,
wherein the processor is configured to estimate a driver from among the occupants based on information stored in the storage unit.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein:
the storage unit is configured to store a relationship status between the driver and the fellow passenger in each time slot of a weekday and a holiday; and
the processor is configured to determine the relationship between the driver and the fellow passenger based on the relationship status in a target time slot.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processor is configured to
receive a vehicle allocation reservation request from a portable terminal of a member,
when the vehicle allocation reservation request is received, store a reservation information in the storage unit,
determine whether collaboration with other vehicles is permitted with respect to the member included in the vehicle allocation reservation request, and
when it is determined that the collaboration is permitted, copy a control relating to traveling of a vehicle corresponding to the member of a reserved time slot to the reservation information.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to estimate the relationship between the driver and the fellow passenger based on commonality between personal information relating to the driver and personal information relating to the fellow passenger or based on a content of an address book stored in a portable terminal of each of the driver and the fellow passenger.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to, when the relationship is the family, select a control of the vehicle based on whether an infant or an aged person is included in the fellow passenger.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control relating to traveling of the vehicle includes
a fuel efficiency priority mode in which fuel efficiency is given priority,
a comfort priority mode in which comfort of the occupants is given priority,
a 50-50 mode that is a control intermediate between the fuel efficiency priority mode and the comfort priority mode, and
a charging mode in which charging of a battery is given priority.

11. An information processing method that a computer executes based on instructions stored in memory, the information processing method comprising:
estimating whether a fellow passenger is included in occupants of a vehicle;
when the fellow passenger is included in the occupants, acquiring information relating to a driver of the vehicle and information relating to the fellow passenger and estimating a relationship between the driver and the fellow passenger based on the acquired information;
selecting a control relating to traveling of the vehicle according to the relationship;
selecting a comfort priority mode giving priority to comfort when a degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is low; and
selecting a fuel efficiency priority mode for the vehicle giving priority to fuel efficiency when a degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is high,
wherein the relationship is one of a family, a friend, a dating partner, and a co-worker,
wherein the degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is low when the fellow passenger is an acquaintance or short term friend, short term dating partner, or a superior co-worker, and
wherein the degree of intimacy between the driver and the fellow passenger is high when the fellow passenger is a best friend, long term dating partner, or a subordinate co-worker.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tokita Hiroyuki

Classifications

• Y02T10/70

  Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries · CPC title

• Y02T90/14

  Plug-in electric vehicles · CPC title

• Y02T10/7072

  Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors · CPC title

• B60L2250/18

  by enquiring driving style · CPC title

• B60L2240/70

  Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres · CPC title